WEBVTT NICHOLE: TODAY, THE DEFENSETRIED IT TO SHIFT BLAME FORBELLA'S THAT FROM MCCARTHY TOHER MOTHER, MICHELLE ON.>> PROBABLY THE WEIRDESTCONVERSATION I HAVE EVER HAD.NICHOLE: THE DEFENSE CONTINUEDTRYING TO POKE HOLES IN THEPROSECUTION'S CASE AGAINSTMICHAEL MCCARTHY.DEFENSE WITNESS NICOLE MARQUISDESCRIBES A CONVERSATION WITHRACHELLE BOND THE MOTHER OF2-YEAR-OLD BELLA, MONTHS BEFORETHE LITTLE GIRL'S DISAPPEARANCE.>> SHE TOLD ME HER PARENTS WEREDEMONIC AND WHEN SHE WAS A CHILDHER PARENTS WOULD TRY AND PULLHER SOUL OUT OF HER BODY.SHE WAS IN FEAR THAT WHATEVERWAS TRYING TO GO AFTER HER WASNOW TRYING TO GO AFTER HERDAUGHTERNICHOLE: DEFENSE LAWYERS TRYINGTO CAST DOUBT THAT MICHAELMCCARTHY, BOND'S BOYFRIEND ATTHE TIME, KILLED THE TODDLER IN2015.EARLIER THIS MORNING GRILLING, THE STATE TROOPER WHOINTERROGATED MCCARTHY, AS HE LAYIN A HOSPITAL BED AWAITINGSURGERY FOR AN ABSCESS.>> WHEN YOU'RE TALKING TO MR.MCCARTHY, WERE YOU TRYING TO GETTHE TRUTH OR WERE YOU TRYING TOGET A LIE?>> AGAIN, MR. SCHAPIRO, IANSWERED THIS QUESTION SEVERALTIMES.I WANTED TO GET A STORY.THAT WAS MY ROLE THERE.I WANTED TO GET MR. MCCARTHY'SSTORY.NICHOLE: JONATHAN SHAPIROQUESTIONING THE TROOPER'SMETHODS OF INTERROGATION.>> YOU TELL HIM THIS IS THE ONECHANCE FOR YOU TO TELL THE TRUTHABOUT WHAT HAPPENED, CORRECT?>> THAT'S THE PHRASE I USED.>> WHICH IS A THREAT.THAT WAS A THREAT, YOU BETTERTELL US THE TRUTH OR ELSE?>> IT WAS A BAD CHOICE OF WORDS.

Prosecution rests in Bella Bond murder trial

Share

Shares

Copy Link

{copyShortcut} to copy
Link copied!

Updated: 5:27 PM EDT Jun 16, 2017

BOSTON —

The prosecution rested their case Friday in the trial of a man accused of killing a 2-year-old girl whose body washed up on a Boston Harbor island.

On Friday witness for the defense Nicole Marquis said she often saw the toddler's mother, Rachelle Bond, at a Brookline clinic they both attended. Marquis testified about her surreal last experience with Bond, as well as her unanswered tip to police concerning Baby Doe’s identity.

Advertisement

Marquis said she last encountered Bond around March 2015, the first time she had seen her without Bella.

Thinking that Bond didn’t look like her “normal self,” Marquis said she asked Bond if anything was wrong. Bond gave a strange response Marquis described as "uncharacteristic" of anything she had ever heard her say before.

“She told me her parents were demonic, and when she was a child, her parents would try to pull her soul out of her body,” Marquis said. “She was in fear that whatever was trying to go after her was trying to go after her daughter.”

Marquis also described going with Bond on a Green Line train immediately after the conversation. Bond reprimanded a stranger she believed was “looking” at her, saying that the woman was “one of them,” in what Marquis described as an “outburst.” Marquis said this was the last experience she had with Bond.

A few months later, Marquis said she was watching the news when she saw the composite image of Baby Doe who would later be identified as Bella. Noticing the similarity, she took a picture of Bella off of Bond's Facebook page, putting the pictures side-by-side.

“I noticed the baby hair. That was the first indication I thought it was her,” Marquis said. “The age is what threw me off.”

On July 13, months before Baby Doe was identified as Bella, Marquis said she called the police anonymously to tell them that Baby Doe resembled Bond’s daughter, Bella. She told authorities to look at Bond’s Facebook for pictures related to the case, but says she never received a response from police.

Earlier on Friday, Massachusetts State Trooper Joel Balducci, whose interview of defendant Michael McCarthy at Beth Medical Deaconess Medical Center was played in court Thursday, took the stand for a second day.

Balducci was questioned by defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro, who accused Balducci of various improper actions during the interview, including Balducci making an assumption of McCarthy's guilt.

Shapiro accused Balducci of using the interview of McCarthy to elicit a confession, a claim that Balducci denied.

"I didn't make a judgment or decision about whether he murdered Bella Bond," Balducci said. "I did use the interview as a tool to determine what he knew."

Shapiro also pointed out several instances in the interview where he said Balducci accused McCarthy of lying, and some instances where he said Balducci's line of questioning could be considered threatening.

"I know what happened to Bella. The troopers in the room know what happened to Bella. We talked to a lot of people ... Now is your chance to get ahead of it and tell the truth," Balducci told McCarthy in the interview, as quoted in court. "Rachelle already talked, we already have the whole story."

The prosecution rested after briefly questioning Balducci.

The defense called various witnesses to the stand for short periods of time, including Paula Andrews, senior property manager at Winn Residential, who managed Rachelle Bond’s apartment, Terry Bellotti-Palmieri, who attended the same church as Michael McCarthy and his father Joseph, and Susan Nohl, deputy director of the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership, who Bond met when she applied for housing assistance from MBHP.

After the jury left, defense attorney Shapiro said that he would be calling more witnesses when the trial resumes next week. He said the defense had not yet decided if McCarthy would testify.

Speaking to the defense and prosecution, Judge Sanders said she expected the defense to rest Monday, and the jury to receive the case Tuesday.

The toddler was known only as "Baby Doe" for months as authorities struggled to identify her after her body was found on Deer Island in June 2015.

A composite image of the girl was shared by millions on social media.

The girl's mother testified against McCarthy, saying she saw him kill her daughter. In a plea deal, she pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact for helping McCarthy dispose of her daughter's body.

In his police interview, McCarthy said Bond put the blame on him to cover herself.